Tuesday, March 5, 2013

I listen to National Public Radio (NPR) every day during my commute to work and back home again. Sometimes when I run errands at lunch time, I get to hear part of the Diane Rehm show. The first time I heard her, I thought - what the heck is that woman doing on the radio with a shaky voice like that?!? Well, since I have listened to her many times now, I've gotten to know that Diane is a very compassionate woman and I like her point of view.

Yesterday I caught the tail end of her interview with Carol King. I have a very strong connection to Carol's song - So Far Away - from when I was a young girl fiercely in love with a guy that was in the Navy. But I digress...

Carol has written her memoir and it's available in paperback. I can't wait to buy a copy and read it. I bet it will be full of stories from the 60's. Well because I only heard the tail end of the interview, Diane mentioned that there were links on her show's site with more information. When I had a few minutes, I took a look and boy did I learn something fantastic about Carol. She is an animal advocate - more specifically, an advocate for wild horses out west! Her organization is called Return To Freedom and it's all about preserving rare breeds of wild horses and keeping them with their family units.

Way back in the early 70's I learned a lot about the BLM and the wild horse and burrow round-ups. It's a very ugly business that involves a lot of cruelty. I am so happy to learn that a power house celebrity is behind yet another group to help the animals that we humans are destroying. BTW - the justification for the wild horse and burrow round ups is that there are too many of them for the land to support. The truth of the matter is that the wild horses and burrows are in direct competition of the food source of cattle ranchers (in other words $$$).

The plight of wild horses is so incredibly upsetting to me and the information is really difficult to read without getting emotional about it, but people need to know what's going on. I'm so thankful that Carol King is taking action to help them. I've always liked Carol King's music, but she is my new hero now.